170 BIRDS AND MAN 



then the succeeding longeri much more beautiful 

 note, quavering at first, but growing steady and 

 clear, with some shght modulation in it. The 

 symbols hoo-hoo and to -whit to -who, as Shake- 

 speare wrote it, stand for the wood owl's note 

 in books ; but you cannot spell the sound of 

 an oaten straw, nor of the owl's pipe. There 

 is no w in it, and no h and no t. It suggests 

 some wind instrument that resembles the human 

 voice, but a very un-English one — perhaps the 

 high-pitched somewhat nasal voice of an Arab 

 intoning a prayer to Allah. One cannot hit 

 on the precise instrument, there are so many ; 

 perhaps it is obsolete, and the owl was taught 

 his song by lovers in the long ago, who wooed 

 at twilight in a forgotten tongue. 



And gave the soft winds a voice. 

 With instruments of unremembered forms. 



No, that cannot be ; for the wood owl's music 

 is doubtless older than any instrument made by 

 hands to be blown by human lips. Listening by 

 night to their concert, the many notes that come 

 from far and near, human-like, yet airy, delicate, 

 mysterious, one could imagine that the sounds 



